It pays to be unemployed in Oregon during the COVID-19 pandemic

This is just too funny. A company in Oregon can’t hire back their employees because they are making more now with the COVID-19 stimulus than when they were working. I wouldn’t go back to work either if the government was going to pay me to stay home.

The starting wage for a line cook in one of our restaurants is $15 an hour. These cooks receive at least $1 an hour in tips, so at a minimum they make $16 an hour, or $640 before taxes for a 40-hour week. The overwhelming majority of our laid-off cooks qualified for Oregon unemployment compensation of 1.25% of their annual gross wages weekly, or $416 in our example. The extra $224 a week provides a strong incentive to return to work.

But as of this week, that same employee receives $1,016 a week, or $376 more than he made as a full time employee. Why on earth would he want to come back to work?